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WASHINGTON - U.S. Naval investigators won't be meeting with Wassef Ali Hassoun anytime soon, but those in the Middle East are still gathering evidence to unravel the curious disappearance and sudden re-emergence of the Utah Marine.

Spearheading the inquiry in the United States and overseas are a group of highly trained investigators with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), which is seeking to answer the riddle of how Hassoun fell victim to his captors and how to prevent future inci- dents.

"They're primarily going to be looking at force protection," said Roy Nedrow, director of the agency from 1992 to 1997, in comments based on his experience, not familiarity with the Hassoun case. "If this guy was snatched, that's going to be a huge issue for the Marines."

The NCIS is a little-known but far-flung investigative agency, with 2,300 employees scattered through 140 locations across the globe responsible for investigating crimes involving Navy personnel and for protecting sailors overseas.

About half are civilian special agents, graduates of the same Federal Law Enforcement Training Center that also instructs agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Agency; Secret Service and other federal agencies.

"They've had the responsibility over the years of becoming the Navy's detectives," said Nedrow.

The NCIS has trained forensic experts, computer data analysts, polygraph examiners and other specialists who make the agency a fully equipped investigative unit on a par with the FBI.

NCIS investigators were some of the first on the scene at the terrorist bombings of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996 and the USS Cole, anchored in Yemen, in 2000.

It reflects the expanding role for the agency in counterterrorism and "force protection," the two facets that will be at the core of the Hassoun inquiry.

Investigators began interviewing Marines at Camp Fallujah almost immediately after Hassoun was reported missing after he failed to arrive for guard duty in the early morning hours of June 20.

An initial inquiry determined he had deserted, but his status was changed to "captured" after Arab television broadcast a video of Hassoun blindfolded with a sword over his head. An insurgent group claimed to have lured him from the base and threatened to decapitate him unless Iraqi captives in U.S. custody were released.

After initial erroneous reports that Hassoun was dead, he mysteriously appeared in Lebanon, 500 miles and two countries away.

Hassoun, who has been in the military's repatriation process since, denied that he deserted his post.

Navy investigators initially planned to begin interviews with Hassoun last week, but the meeting was postponed when Hassoun was granted a 30-day convalescent leave and returned to Utah.

It is unclear why investigators are willing to wait so long to meet with Hassoun. NCIS spokeswoman Sara Johnson said she cannot discuss specifics of the Hassoun probe.

Albert Billington, a retired investigator who headed the agency's polygraph unit, said the Hassoun inquiry appears on the surface to be a good example of the type of case where the NCIS' lie detector capability could be put to good use.

"No question it would," he said.

"If you have an issue where someone claims they left the country as a hostage at gunpoint . . . the question would come out along the lines of: 'Did someone hold a gun to your head as you described?' Billington said. "I would think a polygraph, if it was voluntarily conducted, would answer a lot of questions."

As in the civilian world, polygraph examinations are not admissible in court, but they are a useful tool for investigators seeking to determine a subject's credibility.

Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the law governing the armed forces, soldiers cannot be forced to submit to a polygraph, and Billington said the tests are ineffective if they are not voluntary.

The code also draws specific bounds for investigators. Soldiers are informed of their constitutional rights through a declaration that is actually more comprehensive than a civilian's Miranda rights declaration would be.

Search warrants can be granted but have to be approved by the base commander.

NCIS operations in the Middle East have headquarters alongside the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain. The headquarters is staffed by about three-dozen investigators, but the number can grow when needed for high-profile cases.

Investigators working overseas follow strict protocols, working through the State Department to coordinate with the host country and cooperating with the local authorities, said Jeffrey Norwitz, who spent 20 years with the agency and is now a professor at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

"We Americans can do nothing unilaterally, so anything we do has to be in concert with the host country's security services," Norwitz said.

To do otherwise would be to bring on a host of problems, he said, including political fallout, and problems with the admissibility of evidence.

"At the end of the day, we operate the way the host country tells us to," Norwitz said.